I'd suggest against it. There are important calls that can come in from true unknown sources, people who just legitimately need to contact you out of the blue, especially officials (police, utility companies, etc...). If you feel like ignoring those, there's also the possibility that a contact of yours needs to contact you in an emergency can can't use their normal phone. As an example, assuming you're married, maybe your spouse gets into an accident and calls to you for help from a nearby house?
This happens less often than being killed by lightning, which you do not take proactive measures against.
People can leave a message. Officials can leave a message. When do you ever need to answer a call from a official?
911 is for getting instant help in emergencies. No one needs you to answer your personal phone immediately.
I tend to agree. It's probably in part that I can remember when someone reaching you required you to be at home. I can even remember before answering machines :-) Now, I don't make myself arbitrarily hard to reach. But I also don't buy into the idea that it's unthinkable to not be reachable 24 hours a day.
I do take protective measures against being hit by lightning. I don't take shelter under trees during a lightning storm - I do so in a building that has a working lightning rod.
> I do so in a building that has a working lightning rod.
On a serious note, all buildings are different so you can't really do this reliably as it is unlikely you will locate the lightning rod before it is too late to course correct.
You can always just accept the call and wait for the other party to speak. If it's a machine-assisted call, silence doesn't trigger the answer detector, and it hangs up after a few seconds, possibly also marking your number as no-contact. A human caller will eventually ask if anyone is listening.
They called you, after all. They can just say what they wanted to say whether you acknowledge them or not.
